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Nokia 5100 Reviewed
An anonymous reader writes "Just read a review of Nokia's 5100 mobile phone. This phone has an integrated flashlight, FM tuner, a calorie burn application, sound meter and thermometer. And yet there is no Bluetooth capabilites. Is the cell phone market getting so desperate that companies are adding everything including the kitchen sink to sell these phones? Why would you want a sound meter or a calorie tracking application in a cell phone?" Looks like a good phone for people who like phones to look gaudy. Bells and whistles aside, the flashlight feature sounds pretty practical. A sound meter though?
This phone has an integrated flashlight, FM tuner, a calorie burn application, sound meter and thermometer.
Nokia 5200 has a built in microwave
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The sound meter seems pretty useless to me, but i guess, since a phone typicly has a microphone build in (d'oh), all it takes is a piece of software.
Sound meter actually quite cool, phone automatically adjust speaker volume depending how much there is background noise while speaking. It rocks! ;)
http://archonon.sytes.net/
Nokia used to make the best phones -- compact, reliable, with modern features. Now their phones look like Nokia raided Ideo's discard pile. These phones look great as objects, but each new Nokia suggests "phone" to me less and less.
If you want a feature packed monster, go for the Sony-Ericsson P800. Now THAT is a phone!
I guess it beats using my old nokia green blacklit screen to find my missing contact when it falls out at the movies...
"You had this look that of an angel, it was such a bad disguise" --Dishwalla
Clearly the calorie burn meter is to find out how much energy you waste playing snake...
why would the leave out the bluetooth connectivity?
I think that bluetooth would be more valuable than a flashlight, or the thermometer.
They include stuff that just about nobody will use, and leave out bluetooth. I think that a great selling point of Bluetooth would be local wireless multiplayer games. Then you would convince people to get this phone so that you can play games.
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
So I don't have to suffer taping a mini mag-light to my handset now? Phew.
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
The phones today are becoming the one thing you don't go out of home without one. This is the reason we are seeing more and more things integrated in phones. A picture is word 1000 words? then take it. You want to remember something? record yourself speaking. etc...
Are all this possibilities usefull? One nevers knows. I'd really like to take a termometer and a sound meter to my work place. Then I would have objectives reasons to say "I'm feeling cold" and "It's really noisy in here".
This way perhaps my workmates wouldn't find strange that I am with t-shirt, shirt, sweeter and sport jacket in my workplace (It's nearly summer, I want to sweat dammit!)
Be happy.
That is a little simplistic (not to mention quite sexist) - I think it is marketed at the kind of person who would buy useless upgrades like the glow in the dark alloys.
Or the kind of people who buy SUV's, that is more the target 'demographic'
At the end of the day, what I want from a mobile phone is the ability to make calls, a battery that lasts ages, and the ability to recieve text messages. All the rest of this shite doesn't interest me in the slightest. I have a torch I carry around anyway.
An infinite number of monkeys will eventually come up with the complete works of
Out of all the cell phones I've ever had, I've always admired the usability of Nokia's menus.
But what the heck are they thinking with these stupid non-standard dialpad layouts? Do they assume that everyone likes using voice dial? I like the ability to be able to blindly use my phone without looking at it, navigating by feel and memory.
The use for the sound meter is obvious.
:-)
Often, when I am sitting in a movie talking loudly on my cell phone, I want to know how loud the movie is so I can put protective ear plugs in to save my hearing. Right now, I just start the movie with them in, but it makes it hard to hear my phone ring.
Hmmm.... I ride bicycles, motorcycles, go camping, skiing, etc. I think I lead a fairly active lifestyle. And yet I would not touch this Nokia with a 10ft pole. I like Nokia, my 2 year old 8260 has 700 hours of talktime on it (I have no landline for those who are wondering). It's still working well, after a few faceplate and backplate changes and a couple of thorough cleanups inside (dropping your phone while biking will tend to crack stuff)
I can understand rugged designs, but why did they have to make it look like a 2 year-old's toy? I'd really like to see the design team that thought this cell phone was attractive, because most people will hate it. Why are most companies unable to create a rugged design while keeping a professional-looking exterior? Panasonic proved it can be done with their Toughbooks, but in terms of cellphones I'm yet to see such a product.
But I guess for everything there is a market niche, no matter how small. This phone is probably targeted to those who install led lit cases and antenas on their mobiles. To each his own I suppose.
I have a Sony Ericsson T68i. It sucks. It feels ergonomically weird, the navigation stinks, and, most importantly, the number pad is painful to use. The buttons are small, not alligned, and you have to bend your thumb at a weird angle to dial. The flip-open StarTak-like phones with nice buttons are the way to go. Also, ever hear of Cingular? AVOID THEM LIKE SARS! Long live the StarTak.
As someone who designs embedded hardware, I can probably explain a couple of the hardware-based features for those wondering why they're included.
:-)
- Sound level metering is relatively trivial to implement when you're already digitizing a sound stream
- The phone's battery pack might well already feature an IC containing a temperature sensor. It's not unusual for so-caleld "smart" battery monitor chipsets (such as the Dallas Semiconductor DS2438) to have onboard temperature sensing, because "smart" charging of modern battery cells requires this.
So, the designers of the phone just found novel ways to use the existing components. Often made even easier as a lot of the separate ICs in phones these days are actually sitting on a 1, 2 or 3-wire bus (1-wire, I2C, SPI, etc).
FYI...just in case anyone cares
-psy
These features aren't aimed at women, they're aimed at teenagers.
Teenagers are far more fashion-concious than any other demographic grouping, and are far more likely to upgrade their handsets for cosmetic reasons than adults who'll use a phone until it breaks down of they have a compelling reason to upgrade (eg, Bluetooth).
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
I'm not quite sure about the Calorie Burn meter, that might just be to throw off the CIA or FBI, but the rest of the functionality is obvious:
Flashlight - So the Finnish spies can see where they're going and crack safes.
FM Tuner - To receive secret messages coded as Finnish boy-band songs.
Sound Meter - So they know when they're about to go over the threshold of security systems based on sound volume.
Thermometer - Same thing, but temperature based.
It pretty much looks like a bunch of devices from Sneakers rolled into one without the thermal suit. Good thinking on the Calorie burn meter, that'd throw anyone off.
Karma: Not Particularly Funny.
HowardChui.com
I'm friends with Howard, and got to see it then. It's a decent phone, and the white LED flashlight is really handy at times (much like the Photons). As for the sound meter and themometer, I guess you can use it when reviewing the latest PC =)
With the sound meter you can measure how loud that dude has to say "Can you hear me now?" to be hear over the static.
Think construction sites, factory floors, heavy machinery, kindergartens (picture 20 kids playing, er, screaming at the top of their lungs) etc. All extremely noisy, sometimes over the top. Developed countries have regulations on noise level, the responsible personnel needs a simple and practical way to measure the level.
Trusted Computing FAQ | Free Dawit Isaak!
Unlike the Samsung TGH-500, which is really targeted at women. I don't think many men have use for the menstruation calendar that this phone offers unless it's... um don't shoot me... for tracking the mood swings of his female companion.
An application that actually burns calories?!!
Jesus!!! Has someone ported this to Linux yet?!!
I planned on inserting something witty here but never got around to it.
Would be pretty interesting in a club or a concert to see just how damaged my ears are getting.
Probably it's used for the automatic volume control and someone figured it'd be a fun little toy to let the user have access to it as well.
The question still remains...does it work as a phone? Sony-Ericsson and the 8200 series and many other new "tech phones" drop calls, have bad conncection, and break after the first drop. 3 decades of cell-phone technology and they still don't realize that the best phones have an external antenna. I'll stick iwth my old billy-club-size mobile until they can solve those frequent problems.
The phone is designed for "active" people who like to work out. Just looking at the design, and noting the fact that it is water-resistant and hardened should clue anyone in that it's made for people to use while they're exercising. As such, the calorie tracking application is something I'd find useful. I don't like to carry a bunch of crap to the gym when I workout, but I usually take my cell phone with me. This one I can use as a walkman (listen to FM radio), record my calories (takes the place of similar PDA apps, or a pen & paper), and also handle any phone calls or whatever. And BTW it has other PIM features like address book, calendar, and to-do list which are the only features I really use on my PDA.
So far as the sound meter is concerned, I'm not really sure what that's for. I guess so that instead of saying "Speak up! It's really noisy here!" you can say "Speak up! It's the ambient sound level is 125dB here!"
The StarTak phone was built by people who grew up with classic Trek, and wanted communicators.
To the next gen, communicators are passe, so they've given us the tricorder.
I'm just hoping the next generation after this phone gives us phasers.
What were you expecting?
"I view US Cellphones as disposable"
Sounds like you've been watching The Matrix again. Remember, in real life, phones don't just appear out of nowhere.
You may not agree with what I'm saying but I'll kill you for my right to say it
And yet there is no Bluetooth capabilites. Is the cell phone market getting so desperate that companies are adding everything including the kitchen sink to sell these phones? Why would you want a sound meter or a calorie tracking application in a cell phone?
Bluetooth is just another one of these features.
Now, the decibel level hardware were able to adjust the phone's ring/speaker volume to be appropriate for the conditions, I'd say that would be more useful than Bluetooth. I'm willing to bet it does and the reviewer just didn't notice. The sound meter app is probably just because-we-can-ware.
Here's some insights for you:
the flashlight is useful. I've got a photon microlight on my keychain, but once it's stuffed in a pocket with keys and wallet, it's not handy to get to.
The phone, in it's own little pocket is just great for that.
The soundmeter, and calorie counter: i've never used. They are just toys. I don't bother with them.
The FM radio is a godsend. I used to have a nokia 5510 - the mp3 player, but the software to copy mp3s was so bad that i only used to listen to the radio on it. The radio is brilliant for bus journeys, or just 'tuning out' for a bit between university lectures.
The picture messaging is a novelty. I don't use it, cos not enough of my friends use it either.
GPRS sucks - it very much feels like it's the same speed as WAP, and there's no real advantage. But the java games and applications are great (especially with a little searching on wap sites, you can download them for free)
But the phone is light, strong, relatively small, with good battery life, reliable signal strength for where i live, and while it may not look as flashy as the camera phones, or have the technology of the third generation mobiles currently available, I like it a lot, and I really don't see why people are so negative about it, unless they've actually used it.
Andyboy_H
I have a friend who is a real cheap bastard. He bought a new phone and he is ranting and raving about all the new features it has like games, a world map and a tip calculator. I said, now that you have a tip calculator, are you going to start leaving tips, and he simply responds no.
Where's the piano wire or the snakebite kit?
The sound meter seems pretty useless to me, but i guess, since a phone typicly has a microphone build in (d'oh), all it takes is a piece of software.
Actually, that could be really useful if it works slightly differently than as advertised. Frequently, I will be using my phone in a semi-public (or, worse yet, public) place, and after hanging up, I'll realize that I've been more or less screaming into the mouthpiece. I have no idea of why I do this, but if grocery store phone-talkers are any indicator, this is a common behavior. I'd like to see a sound meter built into a phone that monitors the volume of my own speech. When I get too damned loud, the phone would gently beep at me, or light up a little light at the base of the handset, thus reminding me that I'm being annoying.
-Waldo Jaquith
Everything that's wrong with the telecom industry (or at the very least, the mobile phone industry) is encapsulated in this phone. Why do I own a DVD player? To play DVD's. Why do I own an air conditioner? To cool my house. Why do I own a phone? To communicate with other people.
I need all this other garbage on this phone like I need a dishwasher on my VCR. Meanwhile, call quality has actually dropped with the increasing use of built-in antennas (like on the Nokia 5100), at the same time as all these useless new features like calorie counters have been added to the mix.
Service providers are not exempt from the same criticism (and let's face it; they're the ones who ask phone manufacturers to include or not include certain features, so the phones are partly their fault to begin with). They've spent the last several years adding new features to their services such as downloadable graphics and ring tones, video games, etc. without doing much of anything at all to increase their basic service quality itself despite an increasing number of complaints about signal strength, even in major metro areas. And let's not even talk about 3G, shall we?
The last time I bought a new phone it was because I physically destroyed my old one in a fit of anger at about my 20th lost call in a row (I threw it at the wall, and it shattered). The next time I buy a new phone will probably be the next time that happens - it certainly won't be because of any of the new features in any of these phones. The industry needs to realize that adoption rates and sales of phones to existing customers are slowing because of serious and basic issues like these, not because our phones don't have calorie counters or FM radios built in.
Couple of years ago, me and some friends were going snowboarding. We were going to a cabin belonging to the parents of one of us. It was a long drive and when we finally got there it was quite dark.
Problem was, the cabin were in the woods, some distance from any road, and the one who were supposed to know where it was, hadn't been there in about ten years. So.. we ended up stranded in a dark forest, with no idea where we were or where the cars were, with snow up to our thighs. When we finally found a cabin, we found ten of them.
Since it was pitch dark and extremely cold, fiddling with a key trying to find a keyhole in ten cabins were almost hopeless. Until we remembered that we had mobile phones. With the light from the panel of five Nokia phones, we finally managed to find and open the right cabin. So, yeah. Americans suck.
How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
I used to work for a cell phone company and the we had far more defective returns on higher end phones than anything else... and it's much harder to explain to your manager why you swapped out a $400 phone than a $20 phone.
"Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me."
I think it'd be a bit hard to fit this thing under your tounge. Let's not go to the other place you can take your temperature.
This is one thing that I can never work out on ./
Putting a USB memory stick in a watch is cool,
Putting a PC in a toaster/playstation/other novel object is cool,
Getting a pc to do something new is cool....
but as soon as someone puts extra features into a phone it becomes excessive.
Mobile phones are becoming more and more ubiquitous, they are probably the only electronic device (other than a watch) that we are likely to have with us at all times. They are toys, fashion accessories, and PDAs'. Manufacturers are experimenting, seeing what users want and will use. Surely this is a good thing.
Remember that mobile phones are going to be soon if they are not already more common place than PCs. If you just want to use them to make calls that is fine but if you can have something as powerful as a 386* on you, it may as well allow you to do other things on it
* Crude estimate, based on the fact that both can play wolf 3d.
Seems to me that the sound meter would be fun for people with booming sound systems in their cars and trucks, both for bragging rights and as a possible defense against getting ticketed for violating noise ordinances.
The design, feature set, and price is not intended to make this phone "compete" directly against other phones, it is instead supposed to make certain people - who the /. crowd almost by definition will not identify with - say "hey, that's MY phone!"
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